James Corden has spoken for the first time about being called out for alleged “abusive” behaviour towards staff at the New York restaurant, Balthazar.
In an Instagram post shared earlier this week, the restaurant’s owner Keith McNally described the Gavin & Stacey star as a “hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
After sharing two examples of the British star’s treatment of his staff, McNally said he had banned the Late Late Show host from the restaurant. The ban was lifted shortly afterwards after James got in contact and “apologised profusely”.
Speaking about the fallout in an interview with the New York Times, James insisted he’d done “nothing wrong” and that the whole thing was “beneath all of us”.
“I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” he told the publication. “So why would I ever cancel this [interview]?”
“I was there. I get it. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication.”
He added that he was considering addressing the incident on The Late Late Show, but added that he had not “really read” anything that the restaurant owner had written yet.
“I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it,” he said.
During the interview, which was conducted at another New York eatery, another customer at a nearby table sent back her eggs.
Watching the situation, James remarked to the journalist: “Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair?”
“This is my point. It’s insane,” he added.
In his Instagram post, Balthazar’s owner shared two occasions when he described James as being “extremely nasty”.
In one instance, in June, he apparently found a hair in his food and after eating his main course, showed the hair to the manager ― referenced as G ― who was “very apologetic.”
“Corden was extremely nasty to G, and said: ‘Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I [don’t] write any nasty reviews in yelp or anything like that,’” McNally wrote, citing a manager’s report.
On 9 October Corden was at Balthazar with his wife, TV producer Julia Carey, for brunch, according to McNally. Carey ordered an egg yolk omelette with salad.
“A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk,” McNally said. “M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad.”
“That’s when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’” he wrote.
A representative for the presenter did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the original Instagram post when contacted by HuffPost.
McNally said he was reversing the ban on the actor and presenter after the comedian “apologised profusely” in a call.
“I strongly believe in second chances,” McNally said. He added that “anyone magnanimous enough to apologise” to him and his staff “doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere.”